The Thames Chamber Orchestra was formed by Michael Dobson in 1962 to take part in a series of concerts in the 14th century Parish Church at Kingston-upon-Thames. Since then, the orchestra has appeared at festivals at Windsor, Norwich, Fishguard, Nottingham, Cambridge, Pershore, Madley, Walsingham and at many other venues in this country and abroad, including the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and St John's Smith Square. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the Thames Chamber Orchestra has always invited the finest chamber musicians to be amongst its members and its sense of style and warmth of sound have frequently earned much praise both from the critics and from the many guest conductors who have worked with the orchestra.
The orchestra's Principal Conductor, Keith Marshall, read music at Caius College Cambridge, before going on to study oboe at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He has played in many of our most famous orchestras at the most prestigious concert halls and festivals such as the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals, Carnegie Hall in the USA, Suntory Hall in Japan (with the Philharmonia orchestra) and the Musikverein in Vienna with the English Chamber Orchestra. Keith has often appeared as soloist with the Thames Chamber Orchestra, playing concertos in both the Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore halls, and at other venues throughout the United Kingdom. He also conducts Lord Lloyd Webber's award winning Phantom of the Opera in London.
Uzbek pianist Tamila Salimdjanova attracted attention by winning 1st Prize and the Audience Award at the highly prestigious BNDES International Piano Competition in Rio de Janeiro in 2012. One year later, she won the Massarosa International Piano Competition. Recently she won 2nd prize and the Audience Prize at Birmingham International Piano Competition. Subsequently she has been invited to perform with Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonica da Bahia and the Philarmonic Orchestra of Morocco in venues including Sala Sao Paulo, Theatre Municipal in Rio de Janeiro and Teatro Castro Alves in Salvador. She has also appeared at the Radio France Festival in Montpellier (her performance was broadcast live on Radio France), Festival Pianos-Folies du Touquet and Festival de Inverno Campos do Jordao. Other awards include prizes at the Animato International Piano Competition in Paris, the Chopin International Competition for young pianists in Moscow and the Hattori Foundation Award as well as the Mark James Piano MMSF Award.
Salimdjanova was born in Tashkent and began her studies at the Uspensky Music School with famed Tamara Popovich (a former teacher of legendary pianist Alexey Sultanov). She made her orchestra debut at the age of 9 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan led by conductor Kuvanch Usmanov performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto KV 450. In 2007 Salimdjanova entered the Moscow Central Music School and continued her education at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory both under the guidance of Professor Irina Plotnikova. She finished her Bachelor Course in the Royal College of Music in 2016 studying with Dmitry Alexeev thanks to generous support of the Future for Russia Scholarship supported by a Lee Abbey Award. Salimdjanova has also been supported for many years by Spivakov’s International Charitable Fund, the Russian Performing Arts Fund and Transmashholding Organization.
At present Tamila continues her postgraduate studies with Vanessa Latarche at the Royal College of Music with full tuition scholarship supported by the St Paul's Knightsbridge Scholarship fund, the Milstein Medal Award and Edward Manuel/Jacques Samuel Pianos Bursary.